FLAMENCO DOWN SOUTH

ZORRO ROCKS

By Doc Lawrence

“You are my life, the fate of destiny,
in the destiny of abandonment.
Still the same as yesterday,
I am just the same.”
                      Bamboleo-The Gipsy Kings

ATLANTA-Music and dance inspire rejuvenation of a sagging spirit. When Gypsies perform Flamenco, there is something that connects with an ancient flame still burning deep inside our mortal souls. Zorro, the outstanding musical at the Alliance Theatre, proved to be the equal of Frida and Diego, the art exhibit extravaganza drawing record crowds next door at the High Museum. Zorro, with it’s entertaining rythyms and harmonies, is another reminder that Atlanta is indeed an international city where risk and adventure in the arts community comes as easy as a Sunday morning..

With music by the legendary Gipsy Kings, and a cast of Flamenco dancers performing at a breathtaking pace, there was no risk of the audience being disinterested. Zorro is “the fox,” a clever masked hero rescuring his family and community after returning from military academy in Madrd to early Spanish colonial California, bringing along a band of Gypsy friends. Through song and dance, we are led to the spectacular finale with the masked hero swooping over the audience to reclaim justice and procalim love. The celebration features Flamenco dancing and songs accompanied by amazing percussion and instruments.

Zorro is billed as the first Flamenco musical. The cultural connections embrace the music, song and dance of Andulsia in southern Spain, paying homage to the Romany people, popularly known as Gypsies. The blend of Romany, Spanish and Arab cultures is there, but the speed of the musical allows no time for analysis: you just give in to the irrestible embrace of sights and sounds.

Fueled by Flamenco and balanced by amazing choreography, the feet pound out the Gypsy beat while the skirts fly around swirling dancers. Zorro incorporates over 50 actors, dancers and musicians building to a full-cast crescendo with “Bamboleo.”

Zorro celebrates the heroic tradition. The musical brings the magic of Gypsy culture to the Deep South on our most heralded stage. See it to honor love through music and dance. And bring friends and family.

KOSHER WINES FOR PRIME TIME

 

KOSHER WINES FOR EVERYONE

 

By Doc Lawrence

ATLANTA-Passover is an appropriate time to become more familiar with the delights of Kosher wines.

Kosher wine, said Mitch Schneider, who lives in Israel and is well versed in this subject, “is produced according to Jewish dietary laws, called Kashrut. All the appropriate wine making equipment, tools, and storage facilities must be used exclusively for producing Kosher wine. Beginning with harvest, only Sabbath observant Jews are allowed to work in wine production. Only certified Kosher products like yeast can be used.”

Schneider, a career wine professional, offered a few Kosher wine nuggets:  “With some Kosher wine,” he observed, “you might see Mevushal on the label. "  He explained that this literally means boiled or cooked. “Back in history, the Jewish people would boil the wine in order to make it unfit for idolatrous use. Even if an idolater touched it, the wine would still keep the status of Kosher. Today, we use the process of flash pasteurization to make the wine Mevushal. Flash pasteurization is a very, very fast process in which the wine goes through a continuous flow while subjected to temperatures of 160 °F to 165 °F.”

I asked if the terms Kosher and organic were related? “I don't believe they are,” Schneider replied, adding that “in Israel, Yarden Winery produces an organic Chardonnay from their Odem Vineyard. In America, Baron Herzog Winery is not certified organic, but many of their wines come from sustainably grown, low spray grapes.”

Obviously, with all the diversity inherent in wine for over six thousand years, there are aspects of Kosher wine that should attract everyone who loves good wine.  Mitch Schneider believes that Kosher wine should have the same appeal a non-Kosher wine brings. “A Chalk Hill Cab that is Kosher,” he said, “will taste like a Chalk Hill non-Kosher Cab. I know many people won't even try Kosher wine, but the truth is, when tasting a wine, whatever your preconceived notions you had in your head will effect the taste of the wine.”

Schneider claims that there are amazing Kosher wine available today from around the world. More than a few, he states, “are being written about and rated in top wine magazines and winning top medals in various competitions. The days of sweet concord wine are gone! Today, Kosher wine is something to be proud of like any other wine.”

Schneider said to look at Vodka. “There is a Kosher certification on Stoli. Why? Simply for the marketing aspect. No one thinks of Stoli as the Kosher Vodka. Likewise, don't think of Kosher wine as sweet concord wine.”

Here are some of the superior Kosher wines Schneider said to look for in the American marketplace: Castel Winery from Israel – “Their Grand Vin label is amazing.” Hagafen Cellars from California – “Look out for their Pinot Noir.” Borgo Reale Moscato and Bartenura Moscato.- “Two wineries, one wine - both delicious and refreshing from Italy.” Yatir Winery from Israel plus Goose Bay from New Zealand-“their Sauvignon Blanc is crisp, and very well balanced.”

What about Bordeaux? Or Burgundy? Schneider quickly responded, “we sure do have them,” referring me to two sites: KosherCuvee.com and Kosher French Wine importer.

Where to find Kosher wines retail? Whole Foods, Fresh Market, a first-rate wine retailer and if you’re in the Atlanta area, the Dekalb Farmers Market. I have a lifelong pal who has led me into different and usually better worlds and when we were kids, his mother would offer me Kosher dishes, saying with a big smile. “Come on: Try it just once.”

Enough said. It’s time to pour a glass of Laurent-Perrier Kosher Champagne and toast to heritage, tradition, and friendship A glass of Kosher wine brings the history of humankind onto the palate. A transcendent experience.

JUILLIARD COMES TO AIKEN

Jazz Tourism In South Carolina

By Doc Lawrence

AIKEN, South Carolina –This lovely city is well known for thoroughbred horses and all sorts of stylish equestrian competition. Like most of the South, when you look around, there’s always more to keep a visitor occupied and entertained.

The 5^th annual Julliard in Aiken Festival just concluded and what an event it was. Yes, this is the same New York City headquartered music school so identified with excellence. What may not be well-known is the school’s very prestigious Jazz program, turning out some distinguished alums like Jazz greats Wynton Marsalis, Chick Corea and Christian McBride who rank musically with other Julliard graduates like Academy Award winning composer John Williams and classical pianist Van Cliburn. The Julliard in Aiken Festival is firmly established as one of the most impressive, mutually beneficial relationships in the country.

The schedule featured an evening performance at the Green Boundary Club by the Julliard Jazz Artists Diploma Ensemble, composed of Julliard’s most advanced jazz musicians.  The selections included songs by Hoagie Carmichael and more than arrangement inspired memories of the Dave Brubeck Quartet. Just prior to my leaving for Atlanta, the group surfaced for a repeat performance at The Willcox, one of the best luxury hotels anywhere in America, The intimate concert in the bar was what you’d expect in New Orleans or Key West.

Even with their busy performing schedules, the Julliard artists stay busier yet behind the scenes, with daily performances in regional schools as part of the Julliard in Aiken Outreach Program. Dr. Sandra Field, President of Juilliard in Aiken, said that “outreach is very important to Juilliard’s mission, and to ours, too.  It’s a huge part of what the Juilliard artists are here for. When they’re not on stage they’re in the schools,” she said.  “They teach in their disciplines, but they also serve as mentors and role models.”

The exclusive Juilliard in Aiken Performing Arts Festival and Outreach Program is the only partnership of its kind maintained by Juilliard anywhere in the world. The Festival began in 2009, thanks to an extraordinary gift to Juilliard by two Pulitzer Prize-winning authors, Aiken residents Gregory White Smith and Steven Naifeh, who bequeathed the use of their mansion, Joye Cottage, to the school.  

Tourism’s trajectory is soaring here in this wonderful part of America. Offer excellence and people will come. The truly lucky ones will stay.

Be proud, Aiken.

NOTE: Join Doc Lawrence as he follows the Atlanta Braves in Florida. It's the sixth year of Gourmet Baseball:

http://mycookingmagazine.com/gourmet-highway-floridas-spring-baseball-ritual-fine-dining-near-the-ballpark/

FLORIDA BASEBALL WITH DOC LAWRENCE

FLORIDA GRAPEFRUIT LEAGUE-

GOURMET BASEBALL

Florida Grapefruit League Baseball in Melbourne, Jupiter, Port St. Lucie, Port Charlotte, Lakeland, Kissimmee, Sarasota, Tampa, Clearwater, Dunedin, Bradenton, Ft. Myers, Viera, Lake Buena Vista

“It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone."                                                Bart Giamatti

By Doc Lawrence

 LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla-It’s an annual pilgramge that became a case of careless love. Baseball is in my DNA. When the grass is cut on Florida’s playing fields and the cracking sounds from bats and laughter of children fill the air, daily living seems much better.

Florida’s Grapefruit League also known as Major League Baseball’s Florida Spring Training is already underway with the first games set this week. For those who aren’t fanatics (and I’m really in that group), traveling to different ballparks in Florida cities opens up a world of adventure: food, fishing, wines, cocktails, fine art and folk art, hiking, canoing and the opportunity to make new friends.

Florida’s amazing diversity of geography, people, culture and heritage leads to all kinds of pleasure. Dining can range from Florida Cracker cooking popularized by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’ classic book, “Cross Creek Cookery,” to oyster and seafood shacks, country cooking and barbecue to some of America’s finest restaurants. Over 500 years ago Florida received the first wines from Eurpoe brought in by Spanish settlers. In the 20^th Century, Ernest Hemingway popularized rum drinks while Jimmy Buffet made the Margarita synonmous with Key West and South Florida lifestylres.

 

It was players like Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron, Tommy Lasorda, Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams, Sandy Koufax  and Ty Cobb who helped bring fans into the Sunshine State. Today, teams and players  attract new generations of fans back into these nooks and crannies of Florida. Baseball this time of year is a powerful touriism generator.

Join the journey where baseball opens up endless culinary and cultural adventures. We’ll warm up the days with a fried grouper sandwich, some smoked mullett dip, and then on successive days enjoy fried catfish, raw oysters, and shrimp galore, taking time to order genuine Florida beef, pork and poultry and farm fresh vegetables. You’ll be amazed at the wines available here as well as some of the outstanding wineries. Florida even has its own wine grape, literally born here at a university with the cooperation of a major vineyard.

 

Everything begins at the headquaters of the Atlanta Braves here in Disney World. There are so many excellent restaurants in the Orlando/Orange County area and I’ll find a cozy French café. But only after the conclusion of the Braves spring opener against the New York Yankees. And, I have bass fishing scheduled the next morning.

We’ll do our best to visit each city that is part of the 2013 Florida Grapefruit League season, highlighting good food, drinks and fun during this 125th anniversary of Major League Baseball spring training in Florida. 

NOTE: One evening long ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. unexpectedly joined three men to share fine wines from France. One was an avowed enemy. Here’s the fascinating story:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPSAYldA5qM

DOC'S WINES FOR LOVERS

WINE FOR VALENTINE’S

“Wine comes in at the mouth and love comes in at the eye; That's all we shall know for truth Before we grow old and die.”

                          -William Butler Yeats-

By Doc Lawrence

STONE MOUNTAIN, GA-Valentine’s Day in the South is a magnified celebration when wine is included with a romantic dinner or combined with roses and chocolates as a gift. Let’s face it: Southerners enjoy the delights of love with wine. Rhett Butler, our legendary ladies man, risked his life smuggling in scarce bottles Champagne. A lover’s toast requires a glass of bubbly. Down here, this is a hallowed tradition.

If Champagne is a little tough on the budget, there are alternatives. Alluring and refreshing,  Sofia Rosé from Francis Ford Coppola Winery, has the proper combinations-taste, bubbles, color, beautiful bottle-all at an amazing price of $20.00. It’s easy to find at any good retail wine shop, while still retaining the charm of being off the beaten path. Highly recommended.

The red wine for Valentine’s is the one with the perfect name: Saint-Amour. This Cru Beaujolais from Burgundy is truly delicious, food-friendly and also reasonably priced. Locating it might be a daunting task. However, any wine merchant should have it under many labels. Obviously, it is a hot item each February 14.

The late Jim Sanders first tasted Saint-Amour after WW II in France and developed his own cuvee under his J Sanders label and it is still sold at Sherlock’s wine stores in the Atlanta region. Owner Doug Bryant tells me he sells almost every bottle for Valentine’s Day.

Whether Saint-Amour, a sparkling wine or regal Champagne, the glory of the grape belongs in the celebration of love. Why wait for Valentine’s Day? A well-chosen wine with romance in mind opens the stairway to heaven. 

FEEL THE HEAT-FRIDA AND DIEGO

Atlanta’s High Museum of Art-

Passion, Politics, and Painting

By Doc Lawrence

ATLANTA-This exciting city is often called the “Capital of the New South” and it’s hard not to agree. With major league sports, fine restaurants, great universities, one of the country’s oldest operas, plus an exploding music scene, the cultural center remains the Woodruff Arts Center, home of the heralded Atlanta Symphony, the Alliance Theatre and the High Museum of Art. With “Frida & Diego” opening this week, the High anticipates another blockbuster exhibition.

Few artists have captured the public's imagination like Mexican painter Frida Kahlo (1907–1954) and her husband, the Mexican painter and muralist Diego Rivera (1886–1957). The myths that surrounded them during their lifetime arose not only from their significant body of work, but also from their active participation in the historical happenings around them.

Frida & Diego positions the artists' work within the political and artistic contexts of their time. Their art speaks of a fierce loyalty to and pride in Mexico, the ideals of the 1910 Mexican Revolution and their commitment to the conditions of the common man.

The exhibition features more than 75 works primarily drawn from the collection of Mexico's Dolores Olmedo as well as the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection of Mexican Art.

The High Museum of Art is the only U.S. venue for this exhibition, which is accompanied by an impressive full-color catalogue. The exhibition premiered at the Art Gallery of Ontario in the Fall of 2012.

Key paintings by Frida Kahlo featured in the exhibition include:

Hospital Henry Ford (Henry Ford Hospital), 1932

Autorretrato con Monos (Self-Portrait with Monkeys), 1943

La Columna Rota (The Broken Column), 1944

El Abrazo de Amor de el Universo, La Tierra (México), Diego, yo y el Señor Xólotl (The Love Embrace of the Universe, the Earth (Mexico), Diego, Me and Señor Xólotl), 1949

Key works by Diego Rivera featured in the exhibition include:

Autorretrato (Self-Portrait), 1930

La Canoa Enflorada (The Flowered Canoe), 1931

Vendedora de Alcatraces (Calla Lily Vendor), 1943

El Joven de la Estilografica (Portrait of Best Maugard), 1914

The exhibition runs through May 12, 2013. Ticket information: www.high.org.

NOTE: Enjoy the tropical breezes and exceptional cuisine of Key West, a prelude to a visit to the 2013 South Beach Wine and Food Festival:

http://mycookingmagazine.com/gourmet-highway-the-good-life-in-the-conch-republic/

DOC LAWRENCE-THE FLORIDA GOURMET JOURNEY

MIAMI BEACH-GOOD LIFE IN THE FAST LANE

By Doc Lawrence



ELEGANT DINING IS A SOUTH BEACH STANDARD



MIAMI BEACH—Few places combine gourmet lifestyles with a never-ending race in the fast lane like this high energy, very exciting city. I’ll come here at the drop of a hat never needing a business reason. Pleasure is the cardinal principle here, and how you find it is up to you. Food, wine, cocktails, jazz, celebrities, are intermingled with some of the world’s great art galleries and performing arts centers. Great restaurants seem to outnumber the mediocre, a warning that this is not a good place for gimmicks or empty hype.

Yes, money talks here, but there are ways to enjoy much of the good life without emulating Donald Trump. One is the South Beach Wine and Food Festival, a global event that transcends almost all the others. I’ve been attending and writing about Sobe’s events here since it began and from the inception, Sobe (locals call it that) has “winner” stamped on its future.



A CHEF CELEBRATION EACH YEAR AT SOBE



This is a scouting trip which allows time to visit old friends and familiar places like the Fontainebleau, a luxury hotel that always set the bar high. Elvis and the Rat Pack performed here and it hasn’t lost any of that magic touch. The Foundry has doors and windows designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany and the jazz at Van Dyke Café harkens to Miles Davis and John Coltrane.

Art Basel is more than an annual event The world's premier international art show for modern and contemporary works features nearly 300 leading galleries from North America making Miami Beach one of the fine art centers on the planet.

It’s time for lunch-oceanside, of course. The only challenge isn’t excellence, it is being torn between so many places and having so little time to enjoy them all. Monty’s has wonderful food, a view like no other and is a place where you might run into Hollywood celebrities or sinister smugglers. That’s part of the charm of South Beach.

Enjoy the delights of Key West. The story is a tour of the island and some highlights of the Key West Literary Seminar.

http://mycookingmagazine.com/gourmet-highway-the-good-life-in-the-conch-republic/

2013 JOURNEYS

 

A NEW YEAR-A NEW BEGINNING

By Doc Lawrence

I like learning from the wiser and more experienced. Those who journeyed have much to offer. The best are usually quiet and inaccessible. They require that I approach and ask for wisdom. Then listen.

“In the beginning, all things are hopeful.  We prepare ourselves to start anew.  Though we may be intent on the magnificent journey ahead, all things are contained in this first moment: our optimism, our faith, our resolution, our innocence.

In order to start, we must make a decision.  This decision is a commitment to daily self-cultivation.  We must make a strong connection to our inner selves.  Outside matters are superfluous.  Alone and naked, we negotiate all of life's travails.  Therefore, we alone must make something of ourselves, transforming ourselves into the instruments for experiencing the deepest spiritual essence of life.

Once we make our decision, all things will come to use.  Auspicious signs are not a superstition, but a confirmation.  They are a response.  It is said that if one chooses to pray to a rock with enough devotion, even that rock will come alive. In the same way, once we choose to commit ourselves to spiritual practice, even the mountains and valleys will reverberate to the sound of our purpose.”

                                                        Deng Ming-Dao, 365 TAO

I will travel, learn, expand and even write a book. If I’m lucky, I’ll meet you along the road.